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Sunday, November 22, 2009

Love Fractal


My attempt to create a fractal using only the word LOVE. Haven't figured out how to incorporate the Mandelbrot mathematics into the design as yet, but would like to animate it continuously zooming inwards, spirally shifting and morphing into different words and colors.
Nature takes form around the basis of fractals.  However, the smooth triangles, cones, cubes and spheres representative of Euclidean geometry, as archetypal as they are as symbols and commonly found in the world of manufacturing, they do not provide an accurate model the universe. Math for such requires a tad more 'roughness.'

Coined by Benoit Mandelbroit in 1975, the term fractal was derived from the Latin fractus meaning 'broken' or 'fractured.' The fundamental characteristic of fractals is that their structure repeats in a very self-similar fashion at any level of magnification.  This can be found in clouds, coastlines, mountain ranges and lightning bolts, as well as various vegetables and animal coloration patterns.

They are also found within our body as seen with the branching networks of our respiratory, circulatory and nervous systems. From the cells and upward into a fully formed human, fractals may even extend unseen into the social framework of civilizations. They link the ancient mystical understanding "As above, so below" with many of today's mathematical and scientific models.
Further still, language itself could very well be considered a multidimensional fractal. After all, what is any alphabet (or font for that matter) but a set of self similar symbols, combined endlessly through writing or speech to evoke layer upon layer of meaning.
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In the case of a Mandelbrot set, regardless of the extent to which one zooms in on its boundary there is always additional detail to see. During the twelve-second zoom in the animation linked here, the set becomes magnified eleven-million fold. Thus, assuming the first frame is life-size at 45 mm across, a carbon atom would comprise 36 pixels in the final frame.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/ba/Mandelbrot_color_zoom.gif

The Wikipedia page on the Mandelbrot set is densely packed with equations, but if you scroll down about halfway there's a beautiful 14 step slideshow of some high res fractal images.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandelbrot_set
This one is the 8th in the series...
Illustrated below are 10 simple fractal progressions:::

And for some exquisitely rendered fractal designs check out the extensive galleries at...
http://www.abstractdigitalartgallery.com/

Youtube has plenty of great fractal vids as well. Here's one that was made with After Effects...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34zPvmNXTYQ

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